How did the ‘diviest of dive bars’ become a Montford staple? With some ‘Cheers’

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Three-dollar Miller Lites and Pabst Blue Ribbon tallboys may not be enough to keep every bar open for more than two decades. At Angry Ale’s, they’ve helped do just that.

That was the one of the all-day specials the restaurant offered Wednesday as part of its 25th anniversary celebration. It’s a longtime anchor of the Montford Drive corridor, even as the neighborhood has changed around it.

For general manager Rich Lange, who has been involved with Angry Ale’s for about 16 years and has served as GM since 2017, the explanation for its longevity isn’t complicated.

“We’ve been around a long time because I think we’ve changed with the times and really focused on what our customers want,” he told CharlotteFive.

“We’ve done a lot the last few years to be more food-intensive and create new items that are really popular. But, basically, it’s all about community and being a place where the neighborhood likes to hang out.”

That philosophy has allowed Angry Ale’s to evolve without losing the easygoing personality that made it a fixture in the first place.

“We’ve just tried to stay true to what we are, but improve and get better as we go,” Lange said. “We’re always a place where you can get great food, drinks, hang out and have fun. But we’re always adding new menu items and keeping up with the times.”

Angry Ale’s wasn’t always the sports bar customers know today.

When the business first opened in 2001, it was, in Lange’s words, “the diviest of dive bars.”

At the time, current owner Andy Henson wasn’t yet running the business. He bought it a few years after it opened, and that began a gradual transformation.

“It was walls and some beer coolers,” Lange said with a laugh. “There wasn’t much else to it.”

Henson ripped up the carpet, redid the floors and added décor, slowly turning the rough-around-the-edges bar into a more purposeful neighborhood hangout. The building went through an even bigger transformation in 2018, when the interior was stripped down to the studs and completely remodeled, Lange said.

The changes weren’t just cosmetic. The bathrooms were rebuilt, the patio was improved and more seating, shade and TVs were added over time.

The result is a place that still feels like a bar without feeling stuck in the past — a distinction that’s particularly notable on Montford Drive, which has evolved into a landing spot of its own, with other attractions, like Brazwell’s, Jeff’s Bucket Shop and Moosehead Grill just steps away.

“It’s become a destination,” Lange said. “Everybody’s kind of modernized, so the building looks different than it used to, and some of the places along here are different places than they used to be.”

But Angry Ale’s has tried to revamp without becoming unrecognizable.

“We just really want to stay true to what we are, which is great food, a great atmosphere and a sense of community,” Lange said.

For a place with “Ale’s” in its name, it might be tempting to assume the drinks are the main attraction. The drink menu features more than 40 cocktails, including a PB&J espresso martini, wines and plenty of local beers on tap.

However, Lange says the food has become increasingly important to the restaurant’s staying power.

The menu still has the classics you’d expect from a neighborhood bar: wings, chicken tenders, boneless wings, burgers and other familiar comfort food. But there are newer options mixed in, too, including a Caesar wrap, fajita bowl and hibachi bowl. Philly cheesesteak and Cajun egg rolls have also become popular.

“We’re always just trying to be innovative in what we can do, but still keep it simple, still keep it bar food,” Lange said. “We try to make everything on it be great, and it’s one of the things that has groups coming in here, because everybody can find something they love.”

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That variety has gotten some outside recognition, too. In 2025, CharlotteFive readers voted Angry Ale’s as the city’s best place for French fries in our readers’ choice poll.

And then there’s the patio, which Lange called one of the restaurant’s most popular features, though the weather isn’t always enough to convince people to move inside.

“Even when it’s 10 degrees outside, they want to be outside,” he said.

The patio gives regulars another place to gather, Lange said, to watch a game, eat dinner or simply settle in for a few hours — which, at Angry Ale’s, is often the point.

Angry Ale’s customers typically come for a specific reason, Lange said, but the restaurant has become a place where those groups overlap.

On Saturdays during football season, the restaurant turns into a hub for Appalachian State Mountaineers fans, while Sundays bring out the Green Bay Packers faithful (and their Cheeseheads).

“It gets pretty rowdy in here,” a bartender told CharlotteFive.

Some customers come in nearly every day, Lange said. Others have a weekly routine. There are regulars who show up every Wednesday for trivia and groups who have made a particular night at the sports bar part of their week.

“People know each other,” Lange said. “It’s a ‘Cheers’-like atmosphere sometimes. They know each other as they come in.”

The restaurant hosts trivia three nights a week, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Each night has a different flavor, ranging from music-centric questions to pop culture and name-that-tune-style trivia, Lange said.

The goal isn’t to create the most obscure trivia competition in Charlotte. Lange said the restaurant deliberately keeps the questions broad enough that people can actually have fun.

That’s partly because the way people consume pop culture has changed.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Lange noted, people often shared the same cultural experiences at the same time. Everyone might watch the same episode of “Friends” on the same night. Now, one person may have watched a show four months ago while another watched it the night before.

“So there definitely are gaps in people’s knowledge,” he said. “You’ve got to try to write questions and make it competitive and fun, but not so that nobody understands it or it’s only for a niche.”

That philosophy fits Angry Ale’s in general: Keep things accessible, give people a reason to come in and make sure they have a good time.

And the community connection doesn’t stop when the check is paid.

Lange said Angry Ale’s participates in fundraisers, local festivals and events around Montford, and customers sometimes bring opportunities to the restaurant themselves.

“You want to support the people that support you,” he said.

The restaurant has undergone a few facelifts over the years, but the basic proposition hasn’t changed much at all.

Come in, grab some food, watch the game, argue over a trivia answer, run into somebody you know and maybe become one of the regulars.

And, if Lange has anything to say about it, keep doing it for another couple of decades.

“Twenty-five years is a good run,” he said. “But we plan on being here a lot longer.”

Uniquely Charlotte: Uniquely Charlotte is an Observer subscriber collection of moments, landmarks and personalities that define the uniqueness (and pride) of why we live in the Charlotte region.

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